Arindrajit Dube and friends have a pick-up discussion on how to characterize the impact of employer monopsony power: Arindrajit Dube: @arindube: "I think growing evidence suggets "laissez faire" equilibrium is monopsonistic. So shocks like de-unionization, outsourcing and eroding wage norms can push down pay in ways hard to understand with competitive lab mkts. But the shock may not be increased concentration itself...
...Larry Mishel: Yes, many policy decisions (including omissions) have weakened workers' leverage so it is as if there were literal monopsony or labor market concentration. I call it 'metaphysical monopsony' but don't expect the phrase to catch on.
Arindrajit Dube: No, I don't expect it to either :-) But I appreciate the effort!
Kate Bahn: I call it (and I think others do too, like @dougwebberecon) call it "dynamic monopsony"! Economists like the word dynamic, but I'm not sure if non-economists understand what that means either.
Larry Mishel: That's the Alan Manning term. But I think it is narrower than what I have in mind, which is all the ways the playing field was tilted against workers....
Ben Zipperer: It is interesting to see the identification of monopsony with concentration, especially given that the classic text by Joan Robinson is clear that monopsony is much broader....
Noah Smith: I was just going with "employer power" in my posts...
#shouldread
